On Sunday, May 31 2026, the Federal Government sent a high-powered delegation to Oyo State.
The delegation, which was led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, included: the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu; the Minister of Defense, Christopher Musa; the Inspector General of Police(IGP), Tunji Disu; and the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare.
The delegation visited Esiele and Yawota communities in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, where teachers, students, and pupils were abducted on Friday, May 15, 2026, by bandits.
The delegation was at the palace of the Soun of Ogbomoso, HRM, Kabiyesi Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye. The delegation commiserated with the wife of the teacher, Mary Oyedokun, and her two children. On May 17, 2026, the bandits released a video showing the gruesome decapitation of her husband, a Mathematics Teacher.
The delegation conveyed to the beleaguered communities President Tinubu’s deep concern over the abduction and his commitment to securing the safe return of the abductees.
As part of the government’s immediate measures to strengthen security in the affected communities, the delegation announced that President Tinubu had approved the recruitment of one thousand Forest Guards in Oyo State.
For good measure, the delegation announced that the President had directed a specialised security unit with advanced capabilities to intensify efforts to secure the release of the abducted pupils and teachers.
No doubt this raft of measures is muscular and extraordinary. The measures go beyond the President’s prior pedestrian and run-of-the-mill orders given to security agencies, demanding that they scour the neighbourhoods where terror had been unleashed and apprehend their wicked perpetrators.
But these orders, especially his approval of the immediate recruitment of Forest Guards, are evocative of a mindset of America’s clownish bygone days. It calls to mind an interesting epoch in America, which brimmed with a tendency “to send in the marines” to confront every conceivable challenge. For nearly every recent abduction, the easy panacea is to find recourse in recruiting and deploying Forest Guards. This is even when their capacity to deter or decimate the terrorists is, at best, dubious.
What is galling is that this delegation’s visit to Oyo State came sixteen days after the abduction of these pupils and teachers. It also came fourteen days after the video showing the grisly beheading of Mr Michael Oyedokun was released by the terrorists.
One would have thought that the dastardly killing of the Teacher and the indignation it caused should have prompted the President to send a delegation, posthaste, to condole and empathise with the two communities and the immediate family of the deceased.
Such a kind and considerate gesture would have pleasantly surprised most Nigerians. As the country’s Comforter- and Mourner-in-Chief, the President has seldom demonstrated heft and pathos in our moments of grief, sorrow, or trauma. If he is forthcoming at all, he is either tardy about it or summoning those who are hurting to his commanding and imperial presence.
What is more galling is that even though the President could dispatch a high-powered delegation to Oyo State to empathise with the people, he has pointedly snubbed the Mussa community of Askira-Uba in Borno State.
On the same day, May 15, 2026, not less than forty-two pupils and teachers were abducted from the Primary and Junior Secondary Schools of Mussa in Askira-Uba Local Government Area of Borno State by suspected Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists.
It could be argued that in respect of the Oyo State abduction, a teacher was killed in a gruesome manner by the terrorists, thereby compounding the trauma felt by the affected communities and all Nigerians. But even in Mussa, Askira-Uba, the children abducted were traumatised beyond measure. The bandits reportedly used them as human shields while fleeing on motorcycles to prevent being fired at by security operatives. Worse, some of the abductees were toddlers between two and four years old.
By electing to send a delegation to Oyo State only, the President can’t run away from accusations that his administration is feverishly building on the nepotistic foundation egregiously built by his predecessor. Wittingly or unwittingly, he may be sending a message that the lives of the people of Borno State don’t matter. Or that they may be of lesser value in his estimation. This sense of being minimised and abandoned is best captured by the poser and dismay expressed by the Councillor representing Mussa Ward, Peter Haruna Waba: ”Why should we be treated differently? We’re Nigerians and we voted for the President. The Federal Government should treat the abduction of our children with the same seriousness”.
Even if the citizens of Borno State didn’t vote for the President, his office and the oath he swore to uphold the Constitution obligate him to be a father to all, to succour those who are hurting, and to secure and protect all Nigerians from the malevolence of marauders.
Besides, Borno State, as the epicentre of our insurgency, has lost more souls than any other State in the last sixteen years. Furthermore, it was in Chibok, Borno State, that 276 school girls were abducted on April 15, 2014, by Boko Haram insurgents. It was in March this year that the Chief Imam of Ngoshe 191 kilometeres from Mussa, was brutally beheaded by terrorists. It was at Ngoshe that many civilians and soldiers were killed, and more than four hundred people were abducted by Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists, and until now, they have not been rescued.
These should compel the President to send, pronto, a high-powered delegation to empathise with the Mussa community of Askira-Uba. Such a gesture would lessen their pain and give them a sense of belonging.
And for the noble causes of justice and fairness to be served, the same measures rolled out by the President in Oyo State should be announced for Mussa and Borno State. What is good for the goose is, after all, good for the gander.
- Nick Dazang, a former director at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), wrote via [email protected]
